Tag: bbc

Scientists discover 2 million new plankton species – on a 2.5 year ocean voyage

A team of scientists spent 2.5 years traveling the oceans, over 70,000 miles, and came back with a startling discovery. There was once thought to be 30,000 species of plankton but they discovered more than 2 million species. The diversity, and strangeness, is astounding. One species combines together to form a chain 40 meters long while another forms symbiotic colonies, living within each other.

Watch the BBC story:

 

Learn more about the Tara Expédition by visiting their website, listening to PRI’s interview, or following them on Facebook.

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International Space Station has a Large Hadron Collider – and it’s collected 18 billion cosmic rays

The largest-ever experiment in space has reported the collection of some 18 billion “cosmic ray” events that may help unravel the Universe’s mysteries.

Run from a centre at Cern, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) aims to spot dark matter and exotic antimatter.

At the heart of the seven-tonne, $2bn machine is a giant, specially designed magnet which bends the paths of extraordinarily high-energy charged particles called cosmic rays onto a series of detectors, giving hints of what the particles are.

A series of ever-larger particle accelerators built here on Earth aim to drive particles to ever-higher energies, smashing them into one another to simulate the same processes that create them elsewhere in the cosmos.

But no Earth-bound experiment can match nature’s power as a particle accelerator – and Earth’s atmosphere absorbs incoming cosmic rays – so the AMS will catch some of these high-energy particles “from the source”, as a kind of complement to the likes of the Large Hadron Collider.

 

Learn more: BBC – Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer claims huge cosmic ray haul

 

 

Continue reading International Space Station has a Large Hadron Collider – and it’s collected 18 billion cosmic rays

Internet connected cars is the 3rd fastest growing technology (after smartphones, tablets)

The real question is who will pay for internet access in our cars. Will this be another charge on our cell phone or cable bill, like getting 3G on an iPad is?

 

“Intel claims that the connected car is the third-fastest growing technological device, following smartphones and tablets. For a car maker that offers huge potential.”

Audi has developed a built-in 3G wireless in its A7 and will extend it to other new models.

“The connected car concept is well and truly here,” added John Leech.

In-vehicle internet access is close to becoming reality, according to the world’s top car bosses.

The survey by KPMG looking at future trends shows speech recognition and internet connection with wi-fi and 3G will become the norm.

More than a third (37%) of the 200 car executives believe “infotainment” in cars is nearly as important as car safety.

 

Source: BBC – In-car internet ‘to become norm’ in survey about future

 

 

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In the United Kingdom texting is now more popular than making phone calls

People in the UK are now more likely to text than to make a phone call, according to new research from Ofcom.

While 58% of people communicated via texts on a daily basis in 2011, only 47% made a daily mobile call, said the country’s communications industry regulator.

It said the shift away from traditional ways of keeping in touch was being led by young people aged 16-24.

The average UK consumer now sends 50 texts per week while fewer calls are being made on both fixed and mobile phones.

For the first time, there was a fall in the volume of mobile calls – by just over 1% – in 2011, while landline calls were down by 10%.

 

Source: BBC – Texting overtakes talking in UK, says Ofcom study

 

 

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Where are you on global pay scale?

Do you earn more or less than the world’s average wage?

World average monthly wage: $1,480

  • Luxembourg – $4,089
  • United States – $3,263
  • Canada – $2,724
  • Germany – $2,720
  • China – $656

The average wage, calculated by the International Labour Organization, is published here for the first time. It’s a rough figure based on data from 72 countries, omitting some of the world’s poorest nations. All figures are adjusted to reflect variations in the cost of living from one country to another, and as Ruth Alexander of BBC radio’s More or Less programme underlines, it’s all about wage earners, not the self-employed or people on benefits.

 

Click to view the interactive version (shows wage of each country).

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Season 2 of Sherlock from BBC – watch online free until June 19

The dynamic, if dysfunctional duo of Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch, War Horse) and Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman, The Hobbit), battles the worst of 21st- century London, including a tech savvy arch-villain who wants to rule the world and a hound from the hinges of Hell.

Season 2 episodes:

  • A Scandal in Belgravia
  • The Hounds of Baskerville
  • The Reichenbach Fall

 

Watch Online Free

Sir Jonathan Ive – Apple’s chief designer is knighted

Jonathan Ive – the British designer responsible for Apple’s iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad – has been knighted at Buckingham Palace.

The 45-year-old said the investiture in front of the Princess Royal was “really thrilling and particularly humbling”.

Now based in the US, Apple’s senior vice-president of industrial design flew in to the UK with his wife and eight-year-old twin sons for the event.

He was born in Chingford, east London, and studied at Newcastle Polytechnic.

Sir Jonathan had a brief chat with Princess Anne and later revealed they had talked about how often he comes back to the UK while she spoke of her iPad.

He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the New Year Honours list for services to design and enterprise.

See the full coverage on – BBC including a video of the actual knighting process

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London Olympics this summer, 2012 – every event will be livestreamed on web and mobile

NBC has partnered with YouTube to provide its video player and livestreaming infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Part of its strategy is to broadcast every live event in some form, showing more than 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage…using (the YouTube) player to deliver livestreams on NBCOlympics.com.

“We’ll also include replays of Web-exclusive events, all television broadcasts, interviews with the athletes and exclusive daily segments about London 2012. Live streams will be available across our mobile platforms, providing an extraordinary 360-degree coverage of The Games.”

The rights are shared across the world, in the UK the BBC has gained access to The Games and will deliver live coverage via television broadcasts but also online via its website and iPlayer service.

via TNW

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During the Beijing Games, NBC offered more than 2,200 hours of live video coverage – SBJSBD

 

The London Olympics begin July 27, 2012.

 

Our natural sleeping pattern is two four hours periods, with 1-2 hours of leisure in-between

In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.

It took some time for their sleep to regulate but by the fourth week the subjects had settled into a very distinct sleeping pattern. They slept first for four hours, then woke for one or two hours before falling into a second four-hour sleep.

In 2001, historian Roger Ekirch of Virginia Tech published a seminal paper, drawn from 16 years of research, revealing a wealth of historical evidence that humans used to sleep in two distinct chunks.

His book unearths more than 500 references to a segmented sleeping pattern…(which) describe a first sleep which began about two hours after dusk, followed by waking period of one or two hours and then a second sleep.

“It’s not just the number of references – it is the way they refer to it, as if it was common knowledge,” Ekirch says.

Read on – The Myth of the 8-hour Sleep

 

“Don Quixote followed nature, and being satisfied with his first sleep, did not solicit more. As for Sancho, he never wanted a second, for the first lasted him from night to morning.” – Miguel Cervantes, Don Quixote (1615)